Combined carpet stretcher and tacker



(No Model.)

B. SCHMIDT.

COMBINED CARPET STRETOHBR AND TAGKER.

Patented Au 31, 1886.

INVENTOR:

ATTORNEYS.

N PETERS. Photo-Lithographer. Wnhinglun, uc.

NHE STATES ATENT Prion.

EUGENE SCHMIDT, OF STILLVATER, MINNESOTA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 348,350, dated August 31, 1886.

Serial No. 204,302.

(No model T allluhom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, EUGENE SCHMIDT, of Stillwater, in the county of \Vashington and State of Minnesota, have invented a new and Improved Combined Carpet Stretcher and Tacker, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to the construction of an implement whereby carpets may be stretched to place, and whereby, having been stretched to place, they may be tacked to the floor of an apartment; and the invention consist-s of certain novel. constructions and combinations to be hereinafter described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 is a view of the lower side of the implement forming the subject-matter of this application, the handle, however, not being shown, and the tack-carrying tube being removed in order to better disclose the tack-delivering mechanism. Fig. 2 is a side view of the implement, the lower portion thereof being shown in section. Fig. 3 is a sectional plan view taken on line 00 w of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating in detail the construction of one of the folding jaws between which the tacks pass. Fig. 5 is a detail plan view of the jaws through which the tacks pass.

In constructing such an implement as the one illustrated in the drawings above referred to, I provide a main supporting frame or casting, 10, which is cylindrical in cross-section, but formed with a longitudinal slot or opening, 11, and with an upper cross-slot, 12,1eading from the main longitudinal slot 11. The lower portion of the casting is in the form of a flat platesnch as the one shown at30- and to the under side of this plate there is secured a steel plate, 13, formed with teeth 14 14, which serve in the ordinary manner to secure a hold upon the carpet to be stretched.

The handle of the implement is broken away in the drawings, the shank 15 of said handle being, however, shown, and in this shank there is fitted a rod, 16, which enters the bore of the casting 10, and is normally upheld by a spring, 17,0ne end of this spring being secured to the rod 16, while the other is secured to the casting 10. The rod 16 carries aroller, 1S, and the spring 17 is so arranged that when the handle of the implement is released it will force this roller into the transverse slot 12 that is, to the position indicated in Fig. 1. To the lower end of the rod 16 there is secured a rod, 20, which constitutes the plungerorhammer, by which the tacks are forced through the carpet and into the floor, aswill be pres ently explained.

To the under side of the implement there is secured a tube, 21,f0rmed with alongitudinal slot, 22, said tube being supported by a bracket, 23, and by rivets 24. which pass through a flange, 25, formed on the tube, and enter the plate 'of the casting 10 in the positions best shown in Fig. 1., the tube being curved in ward at its lower end, and its slot 22 being upon the outer and under side of the tube.

Although the plate 30 has been described as afiat plate, still it has a central recess, 26, which is in register with a similar recess, 27, in plate 13, forming an opening in line with the plunger Y20, and in the enlarged upper portion of this opening there are mounted swinging jaws 31, the upper approaching faces of which are inclined, as shown at 32. The approaching edges of the jaws 3 are formed with shoulders 6, 7, and S, as shown in Fig. 5, and each of the jaws is provided with trunnions 33, by means of which they are mounted between the plate 30 of the casting 10 and the plate 13. These jaws 31 are normally held in the position in which they are shown in Fig. 1 by springs 34. In the plate 13 thereis an opening, 40, through which the upper portions of the jaws 31 project, and upon the upper portions of the plate there are stops 4, against which the upper ends of the jaws 31 abut.

In operation the heads of a number of tacks, 5, are placed within the tube 21, the points of the tacks projecting out through the slot 22. Now,the weight of the tacks will force the lowest tack forward between the jaws 31 and into the path of the hammer or plunger 20, between the shoulders 8, so that by turning the handle of the implement to release the roller 18 from engagement with the slot 12 and then forcing down the handle the ham- Iner or plunger will strike against the head of the tack,and any continued pressure will force open thejaws 31, so that the tack may be delivered to the position shown in Fig. 2 and thence to the floor,being driven or forced into position. By relaxing the force employed to throw down the handle the spring 17 will act to return the handle to the position shown in Fig. 1, and from its peculiar connection with the rod 16 and the casting 10 it will act to throw the roller 18 into engagement with the slot 12, and it is when the parts are in this position that the implementis used as a carpetstretcher.

The spring 17 is doubleacting, as it performs the function of a torsion-spring as well as that of a retractile spring.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination, with the frame or casting 10,formed with a longitudinal and a trans verse slot,'and the carpet and tack holding devices at the lower end of the casting, of an operating-rod extending through the longitudinal bore of the casting, the roller 18 on the rod, and adapted to engage the transverse slot in the casting, and the double-acti ng spring 17, connected to the operating-rod and to the casting, the said spring acting to retract the operating-rod from the tack-holding devices and to throw the roller into the transverse slot, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, with the casting 10 30, bored longitudinally, of the operating rod or plunger, the plate 13 under the plate 30,

the plates 30 and 13 being recessed to form 13 at its lower end,recessed in. alignment with said bore, the plate 13, having the opening at its upper end, the operating rod or plunger, and the feeding-tube curved inward at its lower end, adjacent to the opening 40, of the laterally-swinging jaws 31, pivoted at their lower ends between plates 30 13, on opposite sides of and-parallel with the aperture or recessformed between said plates, the upper ends of thejaws projecting through the opening 40,adjacent to the feeding-tube, and being inclined on top, as at 32, and formed with shoulders 6 7 8 below said inclined top portion, the shoulders 6 being adjacent to the delivery end ofthe tube, and the shoulders 8 being at opposite sides of the longitudinal opening or bore traversed by the rod or plunger, substantially as set forth. EUGENE SCHMIDT.

Witnesses:

JoHN'O. NETI-IAWAY,

LEWIS XV. CLARKE. 

